hermit massacre

[xb_orange]

when i woke up this morning looked in my tank my hermits were al over my favorite peppermint shrimp "Sufjan"

i miss him already

 

[Patroklos]

I am sure they were just cleaning up after a death from other causes.

 

[melosu58]

They might also be working on his molt. I`ve seen my hermits working on them a time or two.

 

[xb_orange]

hmm.. so i just got back and they are still all over him.. should i take him out of the tank... or just let them have him

 

[GhostKnife]

I would leave them to their business. If they are cleaning up its a sacrificed meal to the hermits. If not they are helping him out by cleaning his molt off for him. The shrimps are fast enough to get away from the hermits if he wanted to. I think it is awesome take pictures and post em on here if they indeed are cleaning his molt for him.

 

[xb_orange]

what exactly does cleaning his molt mean?
and i was gonna take pictures but my camera is dead and i cant find the charger

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Shrimp and crab shed their "skin" periodically, called molting. After a shrimp molts, it's new skin/exoskeleton is kinda soft so it will hide for a day or two while it hardens up. Yours could just be in hiding and the crabs are just cleaning up the old molted skin. Even though hermits will eat anything they can get their hands on, I can't fathom one catching - let alone killing - a shrimp. If what you're seeing isn't a molt, then most likely it died without any help from the hermits.

 

[xb_orange]

decided to go get a second opinion on the water and the pH is low. we are in the process of adding buffer and getting it back to where it needs to be. Since sufjan was only like 2 days old to us the LFS is replacing it for us.

 

[roka64]

What is your pH now and are you testing the same time each day?
You can increase the pH by adding more surface ripple....I found the buffer to be quite a pain.

 

[Kurt_Nelson]

Buffer will only temporarily increase the pH. What is your alkalinity testing at right now? If you're dumping buffer into the tank, you want to monitor alkalinity (which is what buffer will increase) to make sure you're not throwing your water parameters out of whack too much.

Are you sure the "body" wasn't just a molt?

 

[xb_orange]

darn i didnt think of all of that.. i will check when i get home from work..

i hope the alk is okay...
thanks guys